Internet Small Computer System Interface (iSCSI) is an SCSI transport protocol for mapping of block-orientated storage data over Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) networks. iSCSI builds on two widely used technologies—SCSI commands for storage and IP protocols for networking. By carrying SCSI commands over IP networks, iSCSI is used to facilitate data transfers over intranets and to manage storage over long distances. The iSCSI protocol enables universal access to storage devices and storage area networks (SANs) over standard Ethernet based TCP/IP network. These networks may be dedicated networks or may be shared with traditional Ethernet applications.
The iSCSI standard uses ancillary network protocols such as Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP), Internet Storage Name Service (iSNS), and Service Location Protocol (SLP) to support its operation. One of the problems facing the storage industry is the management of heterogeneous storage network environments. Thus, vendors of iSCSI storage products often provide proprietary software for configuring and managing iSCSI storage devices. In medium and large IP Storage Area Networks (SANS), these ancillary protocols and management tools provide the flexibility required by many servers sharing iSCSI storage devices. However, these protocols and management tools may not be available for direct attached and small SAN situations. Further, such protocols and management tools are too complicated to make iSCSI a viable solution for direct attached and small SAN situations.
Therefore, it would be desirable to provide an iSCSI storage device equipped with plug and play operation requiring no setup and configuration of the iSCSI storage device itself. It would be also desirable to provide a method of automating configuration of direct attached iSCSI storage devices. It would be also desirable to provide a method of automating configuration of iSCSI storage devices utilized on an IP storage area network.